


Stammi Vicino, Arranged for Chorus

by fish-with-a-pencil (DeadFeesh24)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Viktor with a K, self insert indulgence, viktor and yuuri are retired and are now skate dads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2018-09-25 00:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9794687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadFeesh24/pseuds/fish-with-a-pencil
Summary: There's an ongoing rumor in the skating community: if you really, truly need help, record yourself skatingStay Close To Meand post it online.  If you're lucky, the Katsuki-Nikiforovs will come find you.  You'll probably be skating the hardest programs of your life after this, but your life will definitely change for the better.Or: Anyone who has ever been coached by Yuuri and Viktor has skated Stammi Vicino in their time of need, and it becomes a tradition.  Eventually there's a 'family tree' of skaters stemming from them and their pupils.





	1. Jesse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [espritneo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/espritneo/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh, this is probably gonna be a more indulgent chapter, seeing as this is my self insert, but it was really fun to write so I'm just gonna roll with it. The text template is courtesy of [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6434845/chapters/14729722) tutorial.

Jesse Foley-Mendez

“Hey babe, did you get a text from Yuuko too?” Viktor wiggles his phone under Yuuri’s nose, too close to really see anything. They’re on the train headed back to Hasetsu from getting some supplies for the inn; some spices and cleaning supplies, mostly, with some toys for Makkachin sprinkled in.

“I got it too,” Yuri calls across the train. He had refused to sit anywhere near the two of them, on account of the fact that Yuuri is sitting on Viktor’s lap again, and they’re disgustingly in love. “She just sent a bunch of exclamation points and a video.”

Yuuri’s phone lights up too.

 

From: Yuu-chan  
  
Yuuko: YUURI HOLY SHIT COME BACK TO THE RINK RIGHT NOW  
  
Yuuko: YUURI I’M NOT KIDDING YOU HAVE TO SEE THSI  
  
Yuuko: *this  


Attached is a surprisingly clean video of a skater, most likely courtesy of the triplets.

 

From: Yuu-chan  
  
Yuuri: Yuuko, this please don’t tell me your kids posted something without permission again…  
  
Yuuko: JUST WATCH IT  


Confused, Yuuri taps on the video. Immediately, Stay Close to Me filters tinnily through his phone’s speakers. It’s not Viktor or him, or even Yuri for that matter. The teen in the video looks vaguely familiar (tan skin, soft brown eyes and ash-brown hair in a long plait—it's ringing a few bells but it's a vaguely generic look), but Yuuri can’t place a name to their face. Behind them, Yuuri can see Loop holding another video camera, carefully skating backward to get a better shot.

Despite the girls on the ice with them, the young skater looks utterly alone. 

“Oh hell no,” Yuri mutters, “no, no, _no_. You’re mine this season, Viktor! I already called dibs! There’s no way this asshole is training with you…”

“I can coach more than one person at a time, Yurio,” Viktor replies. Yuuri is too focused on the video to respond.

They swap the first camel spin for a Biellmann/side-layback combination, which Yuri declares is ‘his thing’, but it’s even less ornery than his first comment. They’re all affected. Yuuri feels like his heart is aching in sync with the skater on screen. Stay Close to Me was always filled with longing, but this was almost desolate in its loneliness.

Yurio is apparently finished on his end, as he shuffles across the car to look over Yuuri’s shoulder. “Wait for it,” he says.

They land the quad toe/triple toe combo, barely. They don't quite have the technical flawlessness Viktor was known for in his heyday, but this kid is definitely a pro, if a little rusty.  Except for the final combinations, their quads were swapped for triples, relatively clean triples.

Artistically however, they're a dream.  All of their positioning is on point, their transitions smooth.  Even their facial expressions match the piece. Yuuri notices that the skater is crying freely, but it only makes their performance seem more real.

“Oh my god…” Yuuri murmurs, barely able to hear himself.

Viktor, of course, is weeping. Within seconds, Yuuri’s crying a little too, and Yurio grumbles something like, “god you two are hopeless,” but it’s fond, and a little solemn.“I won’t go easy on them. If they want you to coach them, they’ll have to go through me.”

“Is our boy jealous?” Viktor is too damn pleased with himself.

“Just shut up, asshole.”

“We love you too, Yurio.” They say in unison. Yuri groans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, if anybody wants to join the bandwagon, you can totally write your own stuff or send me info on your skater ocs and I'll try to write little tidbits about them and this big, goofy skating family.


	2. Olivier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viktor and Yuuri receive another video from a diamond in the rough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter features ~~my enabler~~ espritneo's oc Olivier Cooper. He's smol and cute and I'll definitely be writing more soon, but I wanted to get something out there for now, especially since they've been sharing awesome headcanons with me all day.

Olivier Cooper

When they both get the text with a link to a video, they’re cuddling on the couch, watching some animated movie they found on Netflix.

Yuuri’s phone gets it first, by a couple seconds, but he just puts it on the TV so Viktor doesn’t miss out. They’ve gotten a few videos after Jesse posted theirs and started training under Yuuri, but not many of them were any good; a lot of fan videos, mostly. And one gag video from JJ, which they don’t speak of.

An auburn haired teen stands alone in the middle of a rink; a real one, not a seasonal pop-up or open skate in a big-city rink. It’s a good sign, all things considered.

“Aww, he’s so tiny!”

“I think he’s just young, babe,” Yuuri replies.

Viktor’s pout is audible. “That’s what I meant…”

This time around, Yuri isn’t there to complain about another student hogging Viktor’s time, and the moment the familiar song starts playing, Viktor’s bouncing in his seat.

They watch in silence as the fourteen year old onscreen lands his first quad, a toe-loop instead of a lutz. His performance is rough, emotionally bland for certain, but they can both see how much it means to him; for someone his age to copy Viktor this cohesively must’ve taken all season. He’s adorable, and despite how stiff he is, the boy’s sincerity shines through.

The boy breaks his ending pose early to punch the air gleefully, then the video ends. Neither of them dare look at the comments, it will only bring misery.

Yuuri doesn’t even need to look at his husband to know his adorable, heart-shaped grin is plastered all over his face. He should probably be more frustrated at Viktor’s antics, but he’s just happy to see him smile.

“Yurio won’t be happy with you,” he warns.

“But look at him! He really does need help—” Viktor rewinds the video to his step sequence— “look! He’s stiff as a corpse… He has potential, being so young, but he needs attention.”

“He’s a diamond in the rough, I’ll give you that...” Yuuri heaves a sigh. “How about I give you a headstart? You get two hours, starting now, to get started. After that, I’ll start buying my plane ticket.” Yuuri wraps his arms around his husband’s shoulders and kisses him chastely.

“Thank you, darling,” Viktor murmurs against his lips, “how could I ever repay your kindness?”

Yuuri presses a kiss to Viktor’s neck. “I have some ideas…”

“Ah-as much as I’d love to, my love, I know when you’re stalling. I have a student to find.”

“Dammit. It was worth a shot though.”

It’s easy enough to get the basics for their mystery skater; his name is right in the video title. After that, a quick google search of “Olivier Cooper” brings up both his twitter and instagram. He avoids his instagram for now, he knows himself enough to know he’ll get stuck cooing over the kid for an hour if he goes there.

Instead, he sticks to twitter. His last tweet was a link of his video captioned, “here goes nothing!!” His little about is fairly informative too, giving Viktor his location and age, and a cute little blurb about how much he loves skating (that’s the most important part, obviously).  
It seems that Viktor will be heading to Paris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please send me your OCs this so much fun...


	3. Aleanna

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A third student appears in Hasetsu. Jesse is on top of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is queenregnant's character, Aleanna Bernhardt. They gave me so much information, all I really needed to do was transcribe and put my own spin on things, but it was still a blast. Welcome to the skate-family!
> 
> I really liked writing Aleanna's version of Stammi Vicino; the idea that she's saying goodbye gets me right in the feels every time. Just as a side note, Aleanna comes in later; Jesse starts in April of 2019 (roughly four years after the anime) Olivier in late June of the same year, and Aleanna comes in early March of 2021, after what she imagines to be her last season. I wanted her to be of similar age to Olivier so they could be pals.

Aleanna Bernhardt

 

Jesse sees the video first this time. For once in their life, they slept in past nine, and are stumbling blearily into the rink when the triplets grab them by the arm and pull them into a secluded corner of the locker room.

“Look!” The triplets exclaim in unison. Either that or Jesse’s more sleep deprived than originally thought…

There’s a phone pressed to their face; Jesse has a sinking feeling about this. “What did you do?”  Their voice is calm, but accusatory.

“She let us, we swear!”

“Yeah! She even performed it again so we could get a better video!”

“Alright,” they sigh, “let’s see what all the fuss is about...”

The girl on screen looks eerily like Viktor in his teens, long silver hair and a willowy build. She uses it to her advantage, keeping her movements soft. Her hair is loose, and the way she lands her jumps (all triples, like a sensible, non-masochistic skater) makes her look ethereal; like gravity doesn’t have a hold on her.

Her stepwork is as elegant as she is; there’s no wasted movement or overbalancing. She makes it look incredibly effortless, but Jesse knew (from personal experience with this hell-program) that there’s nothing easy about what she’s doing. And the way her emotions play not just on her face, but through her whole body…

“Damn.”

This isn’t like any of the others; it’s not in love (and fucking extra) like Viktor’s, nor like Yuuri’s, a declaration that his love was undying. It wasn’t even like their own, a last ditch attempt for someone, anyone to see them as they are. To end the loneliness.

No, this was a whole other animal.

She was saying goodbye. That much was clear by the end, the way she switched the ending pose; one dainty hand reaching towards the ice, the other over her heart. It makes Jesse’s heart ache in sympathy. To say goodbye to the ice… It’s too painful to think about.

But maybe, there’s hope in there too. By now, every skater and their mom knows how to get Viktor and Yuuri’s attention. And to go back to the original form, skating it in Hasetsu, that’s not an accident.

“It’s too bad that she asked us not to post it…” Axel laments.

“Viktor would die if he saw this,” Lutz adds.

They barely heard the girls, gears turning wildly in their head. Jesse’s face splits into a knowing grin. “She said not to post it online. She didn’t happen to say anything about sending it straight to Viktor and Yuuri, right?”

“Oohhh…” The look of barely restrained glee on the triplets’ faces says everything.

“You get the lovebirds, I’ll keep her distracted, k?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably gonna do another chapter on Olivier next, then maybe Jesse? I might put in a little timeline chapter or something so I can help everyone keep this straight (or straight as you can get with yoi, amiright) in their heads.


	4. Olivier, pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viktor, Yuuri and Jesse race to meet Olivier Cooper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me a while, because I didn't really want to break this up. I've got a ton of stuff going on in my life, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post on a schedule, but I'll try to at least post snippets.
> 
> I had a lot of fun with this one, but I should probably mention that all of this is un-beta'd. I'm really just goofing off over here and it turns out that y'all like to goof off with me. Thank you so much for all of your awesome comments and kudos, it really has made my month.
> 
> Please enjoy!

Yuuri takes a nice long bath while Viktor starts on his research. He’s a little achy from practice, and he’s more than happy to relax while his husband does all the hard work. The best part about having their own apartment with a soaking tub is being able to use bath bombs. Viktor positively hoards them.

His phone buzzes. Whatever it is, it can wait, Yuuri thinks, he’s had a long day.

Apparently, his phone disagrees, buzzing four more times in rapid succession.

Grumbling, Yuuri pulls himself out of the water to check his phone.

 

From: Jesse  
  
Jesse: I’m just gonna assume you saw the video  
  
Jesse: Did you buy tickets to France yet? I know you two are totally gonna go see him  
  
Jesse: You’re gonna do that race thing right?  
  
Jesse: I wanna tag along~ I’ve never seen Viktor run before… Is it like a marathon? Or more like an obstacle course? Are there rules?  
  
Jesse: Coach?  


Of course. It’s impossible to keep things from Jesse, especially when it comes to skating.

From: Jesse  
  
Yuuri:  I gave Viktor a two hour head start to do research. You’ll have to wait until his two hours are up.  
  
Jesse: dammit  
  
Jesse: he gave you the puppy dog eyes didn’t he  
  
Yuuri: How do you know this?  
  
Jesse: Instinct. Viktor will be dying to train this kid I know it  
  
Jesse: Anyhow just let me know when the two hours are up I’ll buy tickets  
  
Jesse: What’s the weather in Paris like this time of year? nvm I’ll google it  


Yuuri turns off his phone and sinks back into the water. Jesse can dig around all they want; Yuuri is going to make the most of his two hours. God knows he won’t relax for a while after this.

* * *

The two hours end while Jesse and Yuri are at the rink, taking a break in the office. Jesse’s hunched over their laptop, looking up as much information as they can on their newest rink mate. Olivier is a cute kid, even if their skating is painfully formulaic. Not that Yuri would admit that aloud.

“Are you seriously going to go with them?” Yuri is giving them one of his signature looks, but they’re too focused on the laptop in front of them to notice. Somehow, in the month and a half that he had known them, he had assumed Jesse was a rational sort of person.

Oh well. He can’t always be right.

“I’m really thinking about it,” they reply. “I haven’t been to France in ages, you know?” Jesse looks up to gaze out the office window.

The two are quiet as they watch the afternoon crowd skate slow laps in the rink. It’s fun to watch, mostly because it makes them both feel powerful, but also because the triplets are weaving through the crowd at a breakneck pace, terrifying the patrons. There were only thirty minutes left in the public session before practice, but with the new video, they’d probably just practice jumps while Viktor rambled on about their new rinkmate.

“Wait, you competed there during your first Grand Prix! I saw you at Trophee de France!”

“Well, yeah, but courtesy of not having a service dog anymore, I wasn’t allowed out of my hotel room without a chaperone. I didn’t really do anything. And that was three years ago!”

“Whatever. I don’t suggest it. They’re totally just gonna find some romantic spot and make out all day.”

Jesse laughed. “That’s the point, doofus. They’ll need someone to keep them in line, or they’ll never make it to see Olivier. Also, blackmail.”

“It’s impossible to blackmail them, I tried. They’re shameless idiots.” He had taken pictures of them feeding each other ice cream once, right after they got back from their honeymoon. The newlyweds posted the picture themselves.

“Good to know.” Jesse goes back to the Francais Volants’ website. Like any respectable skate club, the code hasn’t been updated in a decade, but they managed to add in a little google maps app embedded in the page with the location of the rink they use. “It’s gonna be an interesting trip, at the very least.”

“I’m sure,” he replies dryly.

They open an new tab to buy plane tickets; economy class will do just fine for a quick trip. Viktor would probably be taking first class, knowing him, but Jesse’s not made of money, so Yuuri will just have to deal.

“I could get you a ticket, if you want. Me, you and coach. Good wine, good food, once we find the kid we’ll ditch the lovebirds and go get ice cream, or something.”

“And miss out on the peace and quiet? No way.”

Jesse shrugs, and buys the tickets. “Your loss.”

They leave in the morning, on the same flight as Viktor.

* * *

Jesse wakes right as the plane starts to descend over Paris. Courtesy of Viktor’s nonsense, they slept quite comfortably in first class while Viktor and Yuuri cuddled all the way in coach. The suburbs of Paris are lush green in the summer sun, and Jesse watches, hypnotized, as the plane finally lands.

For convenience's sake, they packed everything they could in their backpack. It was supposed to be a race, after all, and they didn’t want to worry about dragging along a suitcase while booking it down the streets of Paris.

They get off the plane first, of course, and immediately move off to the side to wait for Viktor and Yuuri. With a plane that big it takes a while, so Jesse sends a few selfies to Yuri over snapchat while they wait. Eventually the two of them manage to get off the plane, arm-in-arm and giggling like teenagers.

They have a feeling that, maybe, this wasn’t the best idea.

Over the rest of the afternoon, the feeling only gets worse.

It’s easy to ignore as they make their way into Paris, taking a separate cab from Viktor, who got a private limousine, the lucky bastard. It’s there where Yuuri starts worrying.

To be fair, Jesse starts it by musing aloud, “I wonder if Viktor speaks French…”

Yuuri’s breath froze in his chest; he had never asked Viktor. What if he didn’t? “I-I honestly don’t know. I never asked.”

“Huh.” Jesse ran their fingers through their hair, which was loose for once. To not look your best in Paris felt a little sacrilegious; they even managed to get Yuuri into a nice button down and dark-wash skinny jeans. “Maybe if we’re lucky, Viktor will just get lost and we can head straight to the rink!” The moment the words are out of their mouth, they’re filled with regret.

“Oh no…” Yuuri’s face is pale with panic; he worries his lower lip between his teeth and immediately starts fussing with the hem of his shirt. “What if he does get lost? I love my husband, but he really isn’t the most observant of people…”

“I mean, he’s pretty famous, I doubt anyone would try and hurt him,” Jesse reasoned.

“But what if they did? What if they recognize him and try to pickpocket him? Or worse, what if it’s one of his really crazy fans? Yuri isn’t the only one with a really creepy fanbase, you know.”

“I doubt that’s even possible, Coach…”

“But what if it is? Viktor is an easy target! Maybe we should keep an eye on him, just for a little bit,” he says a bit sheepishly.

“Better safe than sorry, I guess,” Jesse sighs, then leans forward to tell the taxi driver to follow Viktor’s limo. So much for a race to the rink.

* * *

Viktor stops at their hotel first, and Yuuri covertly drops off his luggage while Jesse keeps lookout. While people might recognize Yuuri or Viktor, Jesse is relatively unknown and intimidating enough to move around without trouble. They have no idea if it will actually come in handy, but they intend to use it for all its worth before they re-enter the spotlight in the fall, just in case.

With just a shoulder bag, Viktor strolls out of the hotel lobby without a care in the world, leaving Jesse stuck between following him or staying with Yuuri. They wait a little longer, and the moment Yuuri leaves his things with bell services, they drag him out to follow Viktor. Luckily, Viktor’s walking along at a snail’s pace, the race seemingly forgotten.

It’s easy to get caught up in the scenery of Paris (especially because the afternoon has fantastic lighting for photos), but Jesse makes a point to check their phone’s gps between selfies. About five blocks in, Jesse notices something fishy: Viktor’s going the wrong way.

“Huh, maybe you were right…” They show Yuuri their phone, “the rink is the other way.”

“See? What did I say?” His voice is still quite fond, “Vitya barely ever knows what he’s doing.”

“What do we do now?”

“I guess we follow along and hope he doesn’t get into too much trouble,” he sighs, eyes glued to Viktor as he asks for directions for the third time in ten minutes. Despite being the definition of a ditzy tourist, the young woman he asked looks positively charmed, and points further down the road, still in the wrong direction, towards a crowded street.

Within a block they’re standing in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe. Jesse feels a headache coming on, and not just because it’s crowded. Despite this, they still line up a great selfie with the Arc behind them, and send it straight to Yuri.

“What is he doing?” Yuuri frets, watching his husband continue to play tourist. He even hands his phone to someone so he can get a better picture. “I swear…”

“Honestly I’m not at all surprised. This is Viktor we’re talking about here. Maybe he’s banking on the fact that you already have a student and you’ll just let him have Olivier.”

“I wouldn’t do that!”

Jesse stares their coach down over their sunglasses. “Anyhow, c’mere. We’re in Paris; more selfies are desperately needed.”

* * *

Eventually Viktor starts going in the proper direction, sort of. They’ve crossed a fancy bridge, which sets them in the general direction of the rink, not that it’s saying much. According to the map, he’s headed to the Eiffel Tower next. The moment Viktor stops to take pics, they dig in their backpack for some advil, and swallow it down with the last of their water bottle.

For the moment, Viktor seems occupied, so Yuuri and Jesse hunker down on a secluded bench.

“I don’t understand,” Yuuri mutters, “I thought he’d at least take a taxi at this point.”

“Maybe he assumed that the race was tomorrow. We did land pretty late.”

“So he decided to sightsee? Without me?”

Jesse shrugs. “Maybe he really wanted you to train the new kid. He still has Yuri, and he can’t be easy to work with…”

“Maybe I should just ask,” Yuuri moves to get up, but Jesse immediately grabs him.

“Nope. You want to explain why we’ve been following him for the past hour without saying anything? I mean I’ll be glad to tell your husband that you doubted his navigational skills, but I have a feeling you won’t enjoy that conversation much.”

“Might as well let him have fun…”

“Maybe he’s just getting distracted. We are headed in the general direction of the rink,” Jesse says.

“Then I guess we’ll just follow along. I think Vitya will be a good match for the boy anyway.”

Damn lovebirds.

* * *

By the time they hit the Pantheon, Jesse has had enough. The advil did nothing, especially after watching Yuuri stare, lovelorn, at Viktor for over three hours. Their suspicions have hit a peak for the day, so they decide to just open up their phone and text Yuri.

 

To: Yuri Plisetsky  
  
Jesse: Hey quick question  
  
Jesse: Do you know if Viktor speaks French?  


They watch the little typing dots with a mixture of dread and frustration.

  


To: Yuri Plisetsky  
  
Yuri: Yeah he does  
  
Yuri:  Why?  
  
Jesse: dammit  
  
Yuri: ???  
  
Jesse: Later. I have to find a taxi asap  
  
Jesse: Fuuuuuck  
  


“Fuck,” they groan.

“Jesse? You okay?”

“We’ve been had.”

Their coach looks at them, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Viktor speaks French.”

Jesse doesn’t say another word; they just run to the nearest road and hail a cab.

* * *

Although Ollie isn’t much of a night owl, he’s become increasingly fond of evening practice sessions, especially in the summer. When he starts, the sun is barely set, and most of his rink mates would rather go out for dinner than practice, leaving the rink blessedly quiet.

Usually.

He hears the receptionist before he sees him, stuttering, “Ah, miss? S-sir? This is a private session, we’re not open to the public,” as he follows a brown haired teen into the rink. Ollie stops to watch.

“SIR!!” That seems to startle them for a moment. “You need to leave now or I’m calling security!”

“But… I thought he called ahead for us,” they murmur. “Didn’t someone named Viktor call?”

“No. You need to leave, now.”

“Look, I just need to talk to Olivier Cooper. He’s training here tonight, right?”

“I don’t know how you got his name, but—”

“I’m over here,” Ollie calls cautiously. They look too old to be a creepy fan and too young to be a pervert, but looks didn’t really mean much. “What do you want?”

They look up, their face immediately softening into a smile. “Oh! There you are! I’m Jesse; I just wanted to let you know that sometime in the next thirty minutes Viktor Nikiforov is going to come bursting through those doors and offer to be your coach. Or maybe Yuuri Katsuki will. I don’t know who’s gonna win the race, actually, but they’re both on their way.”

“What?” Did they say Viktor Nikiforov?

The receptionist gives up and leaves. If something horrible happens, the kid can always yell.

“Let me lace up and I’ll explain more. It’s kind of a long story.”

Ollie nods, a little numb. He watches Jesse pull a pair of black skates out of their bag and lace up with practiced ease. Something about them and the way they tie their skates looks familiar, but he can’t quite put his finger on it.

At first he doesn’t say anything; Jesse seems eager to get on the ice, but after a single lap he’s too curious to hold off. “This isn’t a prank, right? You did say Viktor Nikiforov? Nobody’s gonna leap out and yell punked at me, right?”

“Nah, this is plenty real. He saw your video; so did I for that matter.”

Oh no. They saw him butcher Stammi Vicino? His thoughts get the better of him for a moment, and he imagines Viktor berating him for his emotionless performance, but he remembers that Jesse mentioned coaching. Whatever he did, it was good enough to bring Viktor and Yuuri all the way to Paris. “God, that’s embarrassing…”

“Don’t say that!” Jesse does a quick mohawk so they can look at Ollie head on. “You did fine. Just the fact that you landed half of those quads is impressive enough. It’s clear that you love figure skating; there’s no need to be ashamed.”

“But I skate like a log!”

“The pitfall of the french skater,” they sigh, “it’s all that ballet. Never lets you loosen up.”

“So they’re just coming over here to coach me?”

“Bingo. Technically speaking, the one who gets here first will coach you, but they’ll probably coach you in tandem, like they do with me. And most likely, they’ll let you pick your primary coach; they’re both big pushovers.”

“Hold up, rewind a second—they’re coaching you too?”

Sheepishly, Jesse grins and nods. “I can barely believe it myself, to be honest. It’s a dream come true.”

“I knew I recognized you from somewhere! You’re a figure skater too! I don’t remember any Jesses in the senior division though…” He goes through rosters in his head, trying to match a name and rank to Jesse’s face.

“Oh, right.” Jesse says. “I actually dropped out during my senior debut. Back then I was actually in women’s and I went by my birth name, Jessica.”

Jessica… Ollie stops short, everything coming together in his head. “You’re Jessica Foley!!”

“Foley-Mendez, actually. I took my mother’s full maiden name when I got my name change done. It’s, um, Jesse Foley-Mendez.”

“Oh my god…” Viktor Nikiforov, Yuuri Katsuki and Jesse Foley(-Mendez; that would take a little getting used to)? He feels a little faint, and very starstruck. “Ohmygod ohmygod-!!” He grabs onto the barrier.

“You ok?”

Ollie tries to say yes, but all he makes is a tiny squeak. “Jus’ give me a sec,” he breathes.

“You just stay here and catch your breath,” Jesse says, “I’m gonna go get a few jumps in.” Jesse ruffles his auburn hair and skates off, and Ollie feels faint all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, two things:
> 
> First, [this](http://a-real-magical-girl.tumblr.com/post/157496768710/for-those-who-are-curious-about-the-last-chapter) is a map of the route Viktor takes to the rink. Yes, it's really that long. Viktor is extra.
> 
> Second, I've been inundated with comments for different characters and requests, and I'm going to try and fit in as many as I can, but this isn't super easy. Between juggling the characters themselves and fitting them into the timeline, I really want to make sure the story is cohesive. So I have a few things for everyone to think about:
> 
> Jesse starts training with them in April of 2019. For all intents and purposes, this is four years after the events of the anime. In June of the same year, Ollie starts training. There will be no other students during this time; it's a trial period for all of them. 
> 
> Then, there's a gap, and in 2021 Aleanna Bernhardt starts training. I'm not sure if I can fit any other students in before Aleanna, timeline-wise, especially since my other chapter would've mentioned other students, but I'm not closing this door completely, just in case.
> 
> After Aleanna, things kind of open up. Yuuri and Viktor are both more experienced coaches, and both Jesse and Olivier can kind of train under their own power.
> 
> A couple of things for y'all to think about when designing your characters:  
> 1) Your ocs can be trained by previous students. (In fact, we already have two characters being trained by Yuri and by Jesse in the works)  
> 2) Think about how well they'll interact with the current lineup; I don't want to have to write a character who fights with everyone all the time, but I also don't want to change your character significantly. Also think about their similarities to the current cast; it'll get confusing if everyone is the same.  
> 3) If you'd like, your oc can leave Yuuri and Viktor; they don't have to stay until they retire. They can go spread the power of love elsewhere.  
> 4) Currently I'd say Viktor and Yuuri would be able to handle two or three more students around the time Aleanna is there. (I'm basing this off of how many named characters Yakov trained. If he could train Yuri, Mila and Georgi, then Viktor and Yuuri should be able to handle four)  
> 5) Feel free to actively plot with me and the other people who have characters in this! I currently have a tag on my tumblr for this called "yoi skate family" and I'd be happy to work with people. Maybe I'll even make a group chat of sorts!
> 
> And once again, thank you so, so much for all of your support. I'm so happy that everybody likes this!


	5. Jesse, pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesse calls for help, and Yuuko heeds their call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, this chapter is actually pretty personal. Despite the fact that Jesse is blatantly a self insert, I didn't expect to put so much 'me' into them until I typed this out. Be gentle, I guess? I mean in general this is a fic for being gentle, we're all being goofy together, and there's no judgement, but still, I'm feeling a little sensitive...
> 
> As always, this is un-beta'd.

Well, they had done it.  For better or for worse, they skated the hardest program in their career in Yuuri Motherfucking Katsuki’s home rink.  And had it recorded.  _ And  _ gave permission for the girls to clean the video up and post it to YouTube.  An exercise in futility, but if Jesse hadn’t done it, they would’ve regretted it forever.

_ There. I said it.   _ Jesse thinks,  _ I need help.  I’m alone. _

Thinking about it sends a bone-deep pain through their chest, and they let out a sob.  Attempting this program meant admitting long buried pain, and it was all coming to the surface.  Self sufficiency had taken a toll on them, over the years.  They had nobody left, and even if they did, Jesse wasn’t sure if they’re capable of letting someone in.

_ Somebody, please, help me. _

“You stopped recording, right?”  Jesse asks, their voice watery.

Axel starts, apparently zoned out.  “Oh, sorry!  Now it’s stopped.”

“Thank you.”  The sleeve of their hoodie is rough against their face as they wipe the tears away.  It’s grounding enough to stop them from crying more, even if it still hurts.  “For everything.”

Loop, looking the most concerned, asks, “are you okay?”

They nod.  “I am now.”  

Everything is sore in the best possible way, and they feel clean.  There’s nothing left to cry about, no locked away sorrows.  Even if nothing comes of their video—and let’s be honest, nothing will—they’ve said what they needed to say.  No matter what the next season brings, they’re ready.  Going back to New York doesn’t sound so terrifying anymore.

“Hey, do you hear that?”  Jesse’s ears were notorious for making voices out of background noise, but this sounded suspiciously like screaming.

The girls all pause to listen, but before they can answer, a brown haired woman comes scrambling into the rink, still screaming.  It’s not a fearful scream, but Jesse can’t figure out anything else about why she’s making so much noise.  It makes them a little nervous, so they watch the woman cautiously.

“Mama!”  The girls call in unison. 

“That was fantastic!”  The woman cries, “I haven’t seen skating like that in ages!”

Jesse flushes; they’re honored, but mostly embarrassed that they’ve been caught.  Which is kind of ironic, considering the video was going to be uploaded within the day.  Maybe this is just too personal.  YouTube comments are distant, where being complemented in person is tangible.

“Ah, thank you,” they murmur, “I…  I’ve been working on that for a while.  You’re the girls’ mother?”

She nods.  “I’m Yuuko Nishigori.  I’m sorry if they girls bothered you about posting the video online.  I’ll make sure they keep it to themselves.”

“It’s not a bother,” Jesse replies, “I asked them to, actually…”

Yuuko smiles knowingly.  “You want people to see it?  Wait, let me guess—you want Viktor to see it, right?”

“Well, actually,” Jesse says, flushing deeper, “I was hoping Yuuri would see it.  He was a big influence in my life.”

“Ohhh…”  Yuuko’s grin gets bigger.  Suddenly, she turns to her daughters and says something in rapid fire Japanese.  The girls nod, and the one who recorded with her phone (Lutz?  It’s quite hard to tell...) starts typing something on her iPhone.

Jesse is utterly lost, and those matching grins don’t make them feel any better.

 

***

 

“So,” Yuuko prompts as they sit in the locker room, away from the girls, “you’re coming back this season?”

“What?”

Yuuko elaborates, “you’re going back to competing this year, right?  You’ve obviously kept up with practice since you left.  And, you just skated Stay Close to Me in Yuuri’s home rink,  _ and  _ had my daughters record it so they could post it online.  It seems like a lot of work for you to just go back to whatever it was you were doing before this.  And it can’t be a coincidence that you did this in the first year of Yuuri’s retirement...”

That had been the original plan, but to say it out loud sounded…  Wrong.  Prideful.  Jesse had left in shame; the idea that they could just waltz back into skating without consequences felt almost ridiculous.  And to ask  _ Yuuri Katsuki _ to coach them?  The worst, self absorbed pipe-dream of them all.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” they say.  Anything more than that would be horribly self-aggrandizing.

But, they had been doing more than just thinking about it: they had already transferred to the men’s division in preparation for the upcoming season.  Jesse had even upped their training in the past few months, going over their basics and worked back up to their only quad.  For all intents and purposes, they intended to join the fray once more.  Jesse was going to compete this season.

“Do you want to?”  Yuuko’s eyes were soft, but Jesse could tell that she saw straight to the heart of their problems.

“Yeah.  I think so.”  Despite everything, it feels right.

“Perfect!  I’ll help you!”

“Oh—that’s not really necessary,” panic tinges Jesse’s voice; this is getting dangerously close to  _ encroaching  _ on somebody else’s needs.  They couldn’t dare—nobody should ever go out of their way for them—they never want to be a burden.  Sending out the call was enough for one day.  Accepting help for real would have to wait.  “I’m honored, but I don’t want to impose…”

“Nonsense—”  Yuuko grabs Jesse’s hand— “you can’t just come all this way and not meet him!  He’d be so happy to meet you!”

“M-meet him?”  Wow, they did not realize their voice still went that high; Jesse clears their throat and tries again, “I can’t just  _ meet him _ , this is Yuuri Katsuki we’re talking about here!  What would I say?  ‘Oh hi Mr. Katsuki, it’s an honor to meet you; don’t mind the fact that I left figure skating in disgrace after bombing my senior debut, but I just skated the piece that saved your career, hoping that the luck would rub off on me—”

“—Jesse.  Relax, it’s going to be okay.”  She wraps Jesse up in a tight hug before the poor kid can dig themself in any deeper.  “I know that you’re worried.  You probably feel…” Yuuko searches for the word in English.

“Vulnerable,” they croak into Yuuko’s shoulder, “I feel vulnerable.  I want him to coach me, but I feel like if I ask, I’m just going to embarrass myself.”

“Of course.  You skated with your whole heart.”  Jesse feels almost fragile under her hands; their chest is shaking with every breath.  “If you like, I can send the video straight to Yuuri.  Only if you want to.”

_ I want to, I want to so bad.  Does that make me a bad person?  Am I even worthy? _

_ It doesn’t matter.  I need to say this. _

“Yes please.  Send it to him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I can't really afford therapy, I've been dealing with my problems via proxies like Jesse; I honestly think it's helping??? But like, yeah, I have a really, really hard time accepting help, probably because I want to look competent and smart and stuff.
> 
> Up next will be a chapter on Aleanna, and then probably a new character? I also have some shenanigans in the works, but my life is a dumpster fire and I have a bit of work to do before I can really write some more.
> 
> Thank you for sticking with me!


	6. UPDATE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This isn't an actual chapter, and I apologize, but I'm making a group chat and would love to chat with you!

Hello everybody!  

Espritneo has once again been an excellent enabler and came up with the awesome idea to make a group chat!  It's going to be a discord, and it won't be on all the time, but I'm planning to make alloted times for us to chat.  The first one is going to be this Sunday, March 5th, at 4:00 EST.

Which brings me to my second point: this fic/au now has a tumblr!  The url is yoi-skatefam, and I'll be posting the chat link there about 15 minutes before the chat starts.  I'll also reblog it to my main, just to get the most coverage.  Aside from that, the blog will be used for headcanons (feel free to submit your own), asks, and probably artwork.  It'll probably be the best way to communicate about the fic, at least for now.

I'm sorry that you're not getting a chapter just yet, I've had a lot of homework.  But I promise, there will be a new chapter soon. :)

Thank you so much for all your support!


	7. Aleanna, pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aleanna meets Jesse, and is in for the shock of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back to your regularly scheduled programming!
> 
> I'll continue to work on and update yoi-skatefam as often as I can, but between school, homework, and now breath of the wild which is eating all of my free time (I'm sorry it's just so fun), updates on anything will be rather slow going...
> 
> However, I do have a plan for which chapters are happening next, and I'm planning another chat session too, probably for sunday again, but I'll update the blog once I decide. At the very least, look forward to seeing more of Ollie and Jesse soon, and after that you'll get to meet a couple new students.
> 
> I had a lot of fun with this chapter; Aleanna is really fun to write, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of her and her personality... I have so, so many plans for her >:3 
> 
> As always, enjoy!

Before they enter the rink but after they lace up, Jesse sends the video to Yuuri and Viktor first together, just to be fair.  God knows if they were going to do the race thing again, but at least they’d get the message at the same time.  Then, they text it to Ollie and Yuri, although those two probably won’t see it for a few hours; they have ballet training with Minako, and their phones should be off.  Jesse has a rest day, but is notoriously bad at resting, h ence the late entrance into the rink.  At the very least, when it's crowded they can resist the urge to do jumps and other things that really should be off limits on rest days.

Sending the messages sends a tiny thrill of excitement through them; new additions to the family are quickly becoming their favorite feelings ever.

It’s hard to control for Jesse to control their facial expressions, but for the sake of not scaring the poor girl too much, they try to soften their eager grin down into a welcoming smile.  Without a mirror, they can’t tell if it worked, but there was no time to waste.

There’s a few patrons on the ice now, but the girl is still there, practicing simple spins on the patch.  From this far away, it’s easy to mistake her for a young Viktor, twirling away like a ballerina.  

_ No, that’s not right, she looks more otherworldly than that.  Like a greek muse… _

Only half of the people on the ice are actually skating; everyone else is just staring at her.  Hell, even those who  _ are _ skating are going at a snail’s pace to watch the girl.  She’s utterly captivating.

 

* * *

 

She knows it’s time for her to go; Aleanna has already said her goodbye.  The cute little girls recorded her performance.  She said her part.

But every time she tries to stop and head towards the exit, she rationalizes: one last spin, one last jump, maybe just do a few figures to cool off…  Suddenly, half an hour has gone by and she’s still doing scratch spins and tiny step sequences in the middle of the rink, and almost everyone is watching her.

She pauses to catch her breath; drags _even that_  out without thinking.  Deep breath in, hold for four seconds…

Wait, is that who she thinks it is?  Aleanna stops to get a better look at the person staring at her from the boards, and yep; that’s Jesse Foley-Mendez!  There’s a tiny squeal of joy caught in her throat, but she doesn’t let it out; of course they’d be at Hasetsu’s rink—they’re still Yuuri Katsuki’s only student.

And they’re making a beeline straight to her.

_ Oh no, did I do something wrong?  Why are they looking at me like that? _  Aleanna’s heart goes into overdrive with every stroke they make toward her.  Jesse’s smiling a slightly manic looking grin which softens when they make eye contact.  But she can’t help but wonder why they’d even recognize her in the first place.  The fangirl deep inside her brain tells her not to care, this is Yuuri’s student after all; she should just take what she can get, but her logical side wins out: Jesse’s here for her, and there has to be a reason.  It’s not like they’d practice during public hours, especially when the rink is crowded like this.

They wave at her.  If she didn’t know any better, Aleanna would say that Jesse looked sheepish.  

No, that wasn’t quite right…  

Cautious, perhaps?  Maybe it was how gentle they looked; there was none of the focus that they showed during competition.  The whole image Aleanna had of the older skater was from televised competitions, where Jesse always had that cool look of determination on their face.  

In the flesh, Jesse looks nothing like the unflappable Grand Prix finalist.  It gives Aleanna the courage to wave back.

At that, Jesse skates faster, and comes to a quick hockey stop mere inches from her—and there’s that legendary control they’re famous for—seeing their skills in person is both awe inspiring and a little scary.

“I’m glad you’re still here.  I—” they break eye contact, but when Aleanna follows their line of sight, there’s nothing of interest, “—ah, sorry!  I’m just thinking.  I didn’t really have a chance to script this, I'm trying to figure out what to say…”

“Script?”  Aleanna regrets asking almost immediately, with the way Jesse flushes, but they continue without answering the question.

“So, since I don’t have a script, I’m just gonna be honest with you.”  Jesse’s making eye contact again.  It’s unusually piercing, which she attributes to their dark eyes, but there’s something more than that; plenty of dark eyed people can make normal eye contact, but Jesse is…  Different.

Aleanna’s heart jumps into her throat; ‘I’m going to be honest’ has never been a good phrase to hear, doubly so for her.  For years those were the words that prefaced ugly conversations about quitting skating, about ‘facing reality’ and preparing to go to medical school.  She’s used to steeling herself and reaching for long prepared arguments, using the perfect, polite tone of voice, to say, ‘yes, mama, I understand that my future in medicine is very important.’

But Jesse isn’t some family member; if anything they understand the value of skating better than any of her family.  Which still leaves the question, why are they here?  Aleanna braces herself.  “O-okay…”

The expression on Jesse’s face changes in an instant, picking up on Aleanna’s nerves.  “Oh no no no!  Don’t be worried!”  Jesse puts a hand on her shoulder.  “I promise, this isn’t bad news.  It’s  _ big  _ news, but it’s nothing to be scared of.  You ready?”

Not trusting her voice, Aleanna nods once.

“As we speak, Yuuri and Viktor are watching your video.  I saw it too—I’m positive that they’re gonna love it—and I’m here to kind of smooth the way.  The two of them can be, ah, a lot.  They get pretty excited when a new student comes along, and it can be a little overwhelming when they come on so strong…”

Something like white noise fills Aleanna’s head.  Her video was being seen, by Yuuri and Viktor Katsuki-Nikiforov no less!  This must be what shock feels like; her fingertips feel almost numb, and her heart feels like it’s going to leap out her mouth onto the ice.

_ I must be dreaming,  _ she thinks.

“I-I’m sorry, could you repeat that?  I thought you said that Viktor and Yuuri.”

“Oh, I did.  The triplets sent the video to Viktor and Yuuri.  And probably Yuri and Ollie…  Yuri Plisetsky that is.  I told them to send the video to just the two of them, but they’re probably eager to show off the new kid.  Yuri—Plisetsky again, I call the other Yuuri ‘Coach’—gets all grumpy when new students come, it’s really funny to watch…”

“I don’t think I follow,” Aleanna replies.  Nothing is making any sense, at least not to her rational side.  “What new student?”

“You!  That’s why you made the video, right?  Because that’s why I had the girls send the video out, so Coach and Viktor can come and meet you.”

“Oh my god…”  _ Definitely a dream _ .  “You’re joking, right?”

“No,” Jesse murmurs, “I’m serious.  I wouldn’t joke about this.  Whoever arrives first, Viktor or Yuuri, will be your coach, should you want to train with them.”

The white noise just gets louder; she definitely heard them right, Viktor and Yuuri were coming here to coach her, but the disbelief is just too intense.  Theoretically she knew this might happen, especially since someone recorded it, but in reality?  No, she just thought her dramatic goodbye would fade into obscurity with the rest of her, some cute artefact to show her kids or her husband or whatever she was expected to do after medical school…

“Are you okay?  Did I shock you too much?  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” they say.  That sheepish look is back, all over their face, as they nervously watch Aleanna.  They’re probably wanting to make sure she doesn’t faint, or collapse.

Speaking of…  “I think I need to sit down…  My legs feel like jelly.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember that feeling.  C’mon, we’ll talk some more in the locker room.”  Jesse clears the path to the exit, and Aleanna follows, feeling lighter than air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how good the hints I'm dropping about Jesse are, mostly because I'm trying to write them from the outside looking at them, not from the inside, where it's easiest. I won't spoil though, because I'm pretty sure it's gonna come up in their next chapter anyway.
> 
> To queenregnant: if I did anything with Aleanna that you didn't like, just let me know and I'll adjust future chapters. :)


	8. Olivier, pt. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ollie meets Viktor and Yuuri, and then joins Jesse for a little picnic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been working on this for the past few days, but the last portion I finished on two glasses of wine, and as everyone knows, I don't edit lest I chicken out, so here, have your favorite smol bean, ollie!
> 
> Enjoy!

Ollie is practicing Ina Bauers under Jesse’s watchful gaze when a loud clatter rings out from the lobby, followed by an inordinate amount of giggling.

“You’re  _ so _ gonna get it when we get home…” 

It’s Viktor.

Ever since Jesse had come to the rink, Ollie had wondered what Viktor would sound like in person; what he might say to Ollie.  He didn’t really know what to expect, but that certainly wasn’t it.

“Oh am I?”  And that must be Yuuri.  Jesse takes a deep breath through their nose, their hands pressed to their temples.

“One last thing,” they say, keeping their eyes on the door to the rink, “you’re gonna have front row seats to these two’s antics.  Just be aware.”

With one last clatter, Viktor tumbles through the glass doors, Yuuri literally on his back.  Ollie can see the receptionist poke his head in for just a second, looking absolutely bewildered.  Jesse looks like they’re trying to keep from smiling, and failing.  They wave at their coaches, calling, “hey you two.  Looks like you finally made it.”

“Jesse!” Yuuri jumps off of Viktor’s back and heads over to the boards.  “You startled me when you ran off like that…”

“Sorry, Coach,” Jesse replies sheepishly, “but I didn’t think it was fair to keep poor Ollie waiting much longer.  I had no idea how long Viktor was gonna keep stringing us along.”

“Not much longer, as it turned out.  He spotted you when you went to grab a taxi.”

Ollie isn’t quite sure what they’re talking about, but he’s glad no one invites him into the conversation.  The shock has returned with a vengeance; Viktor Nikiforov is scanning his home rink with a critical eye, Yuuri Katsuki and his student were chatting it up at the boards, and with every second that passes, Ollies knees are coming just that much closer to giving out.

“So, who won that race thing?”  Jesse asks.

“I did, of course.”  Viktor puffs himself up like a peacock.  Olivier didn’t realize it was possible for a man to look that extravagant in a v-neck and jeans, but Viktor pulls it off with ease.  The man is definitely charismatic, but it’s much less intimidating than Ollie expected.  Maybe it’s Yuuri’s presence; he’s rolling his eyes at his husband, but there’s a fond smile on his face.

“Of course.  It’s not like I was on your back this whole time,” Yuuri says.

“Ah, but Yuuri my love, I  _ set foot _ in the rink first.  You just touched down after I had already carried you here.”

“Alright, alright.  I concede, babe.  You won fair and square.”

Viktor grins—and wow, his smile really is kind of heart shaped—and focuses it all on Ollie.  Internally, he’s screaming, but he’s frozen in place the moment he makes eye contact with Viktor.  “Well then.  Starting today, I’ll be guiding you through your senior debut, Olivier.”

Olivier’s knees finally give out from underneath him.   
  


* * *   
  


Viktor, as it turned out, was quite serious about this whole coaching thing, and proceeded to run Olivier through his paces for almost another hour before finally relenting.  That first hour had been the hardest training session of his life, but his quad toeloop was really shaping up by the end.

He was still stiff as hell, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Now, he walks back to wherever Viktor and Yuuri are headed, trailing behind the couple with Jesse.  The two of them seem a little wrapped up in each other; not only do they have their arms linked, but they’re pressed together from shoulder to ankle, so much so that they keep tripping over each other, laughing all the while.

Jesse has this fond look on their face, but it’s more complex than just a smile; there’s something forlorn in their eyes, in the way they gaze ahead.

They walk as they talk, Jesse describing how their first few weeks have been, retelling stories of Yuuri and Yuri and Viktor, of their dogs, Maron and Antoinette, and even a few tales of the Nishigori family, although they’d only seen them a few times since they started living in Japan.

“Hey, do you need someone to bring you home?”  Jesse glances at him, suddenly worried by the encroaching night.  “I know Viktor and Yuuri are eager to meet your folks so they can convince them to let you train with them, but aside from that you must be pretty tired, and your folks probably want to see you home soon…”

“My family is pretty relaxed.  As long as I keep them informed, they’ll let me stay out as late as I want.  Not that I stay out that late; I mostly just do evening practices and then I get dinner and come home.”  As if on cue, Ollie’s stomach rumbles.

“I bet you twenty bucks that these two won’t notice if we leave,” Jesse murmurs.  “Well, maybe they would in a few minutes, but by then, you and I could be eating ice cream, or something.  You certainly deserve it on a day like today.  Or real food, if you’d rather.”

Ollie thinks for a moment.  He hasn’t had that many sweets lately, and the offer of ice cream has his mouth watering in seconds.  Then again, he’s trained even more than usual today, and if he doesn’t get any real nourishment, his body will probably hate him in the morning.

“I should probably get food first, for my own good, but ice cream sounds so good...”

Jesse nods in understanding.  “No worries, we’ll do both.  Food first.”

 

* * *

 

They get takeout from a bistro close to the river; Ollie gets a salad nicoise, Jesse pate de foie with extra bread.  They resist the urge to get one of the beautiful looking tarts from the bakery next door, for the ice cream’s sake.  He knows an excellent little shop closeby, and since Jesse’s paying, he might as well treat himself.

They’re walking down towards the river when Jesse stops suddenly.  “It’s still legal to drink in public along the river, right?” They’re gazing longingly at a wine shop across the street.

“Yeah, why?”

Jesse grins, and it fills their whole face, their whole body; their hands flap eagerly at their sides, their hips wiggle and their nose scrunches under the weight of their joy.  “I like buying wine when I can; it makes me feel like an adult.  I don’t get a chance, seeing as I’m not old enough in the US and Japan.”  Their voice goes wistful, “it’s been so long since I’ve had a good riesling…”

The old woman at the counter doesn’t even card them, and Jesse returns looking like the cat that ate the canary, bottle in one hand, an acrylic wine glass (with a little corkscrew nestled inside) in the other.

“In all honesty, I’m probably not gonna drink all of this tonight,” they say sheepishly.

Ollie just shrugs.  “Keep the cork and save the rest for tomorrow.  I have a feeling that you’re gonna need it…”

“Ah, right.  Viktor has to meet your parents tomorrow,” they sigh, “god, Yuri was right, this was a mistake.  I should’ve stayed in Japan.”

“N-no!” Meeting Viktor and Yuuri were something straight out of a wild, wild dream, but Jesse was different.  They make this whole thing feel real.  The idea that they might regret meeting him…  “I mean, you probably had to deal with a lot today, but meeting you has been really cool!  You’re a lot more approachable than Viktor, and it’s really nice to know I’m not gonna be alone over in Japan…”

“Meeting you was really cool for me too.  You have a lot of potential as far as skating goes, but more importantly, you seem like a really sweet kid.  I’m glad we’re in this together.”  Their grin softens to a fond smile.

The two find a nice quiet spot, and settle down on a secluded bench overlooking the Seine.  Jesse hands him his salad, and takes out the half loaf of hand-rolled baguette that they convinced the bistro to give them.

It’s dark now; the lights of Paris create beautiful reflections off the river, and the bustle from earlier has slowed to a low murmur.  Jesse has that distant, sad look on their face again; he’s starting to think that this is their default facial expression.

“You ok?”  He asks.

“Hm? Oh, yeah.  I was just thinking.”  They take a bite straight out of the baguette, not even touching their paté yet, chewing with that faraway look.  Once they swallow, they continue.  “One of my uncles on my dad’s side was french.  He was the head chef of a restaurant where my dad lived, but he quit because the customers kept asking for ketchup.  He made a mean mole chicken, that guy.  I’m pretty he lived in the south of France… Saint Jean de Luz, I think.”

“Oh,” Ollie isn’t really sure how to reply; the look on their face isn’t quite happy, but he’s curious why they brought it up.  “Have you seen him recently?”

“Not in years.  I don’t really speak to anyone related to my dad.  But anyway, enough of me raining on your parade, tell me a little about yourself!”

Ollie talks about himself for longer than he thought was possible; he’s just a kid, at the end of the day, but Jesse’s focus drags out detail after detail from him; what he likes, what his hobbies are, his hopes and dreams, even weird stuff like his first anime (Naruto, if you count the dub, but Attack on Titan if you’re talking about real subbed anime).  

Eventually though, he does run out of steam, leaving only questions as they stroll towards the ice cream parlor.

“So…”

Jesse perks up, directing their piercing gaze at him once more.  It breaks his concentration for a second, to be honest.  “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to ask about Viktor and Yuuri.  You’ve known them for a little bit now, right?  What are they like?”  He has a million more questions trailing right behind that one,  _ ‘Is Viktor a good coach?’ _ ,  _ ‘What’s the food like?’ _ ,  _ ‘Where will I stay?’ _ , but he manages to cut himself off before he rambles forever on his curiosity.

Without a piece of bread to drag out their thinking time, Jesse looks away and hums, until they give their answer, “they’re  _ a lot _ … Coach and Viktor are super in love, even they’ve been married for what, three years at this point?  But, I really like it.  There’s love everywhere; every little thing they do is full of it.  Not even just for each other, too!  They have love for  _ everything _ .  I’ve never felt unwelcome, even though I’ve only been there for a month.  I’m sure you’ll fit in with us.”

Even with all the questions that race through his brain, this puts Ollie at ease.  A house full of love isn’t hard to adapt to.


	9. Penelope, pt. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing Penelope!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Penelope Correa is aspidocheloner/QueerKai's oc, and she's absolutely delightful! I can't wait to really start writing her and all her energy!

Penelope Correa

There’s a chill in the air the morning the next video arrives. Blanca is curled up on the floor by Jesse's head, emanating warmth like a big, fuzzy space heater.

Jesse’s phone is buzzing off the hook, but it’s on the far side of the room, and they _really_ don’t want to get up. Carefully, with the blanket still wrapped around them, Jesse worms their way across the tatami floor, reaches out with a quivering hand, and quickly wriggles back onto their futon, freezing phone in hand. Blanca stares at them as if to say, ‘get back in bed you big dork. You’re gonna freeze,’ and then lays her head down on Jesse’s shoulder as they scroll through messages.

Mimi has sent them a video, with no regard for time zones, three hours ago; it must’ve been around lunch time, or maybe late afternoon, in New York, but 2:30 AM there in Japan.

 

From: <3 Mimi <3  
  
Mimi: You’re welcome, babe ;o  
  
Mimi: Darling? Don’t ignore me your attention is my lifeblood  
  
Mimi: Oh jeez I forgot it’s the dead of night over there sorry!!  
  
Mimi: Que sueñes con los angelitos, mi cielo~  
  
Mimi: I typed that right, right? I don’t have the spanish spell check set up on my phone  


And, a few more texts, from only 20 minutes ago, when their alarm was going to ring anyway, if it hadn’t been a rest day.

 

From: <3 Mimi <3  
  
Mimi: I just got done with my afternoon practice, so you should be waking up soon…  
  
Mimi: Good morning! Do you think you could skype me or something? I wanna see you :<  
  
Jesse: Mornin’  
  
Jesse: btw you typed it just fine, tildes in the right place and everythin  
  
Jesse: Feel free to video chat me, but be warned I’ve only been awake for a few minutes and bedhead

  


They feel around for their glasses while they wait for Mimi to call them. Those are also freezing, and they flinch while putting them on their face, even though it’s nice to see clearly.

Jesse’s phone lights up, still on silent mode for the night. On screen there’s Mimi’s favorite selfie of the two of them, from New York Pride last summer. Jesse’s wearing sunglasses, but their grin is still visible as Mimi presses a big kiss on their cheek. They get caught up in memories for a moment, but manage to answer right in time.

“Hey, gorgeous,” Jesse says.

Mimi of course, is pink with exertion, her dirty blonde pixie cut soaked through with sweat; she had just come out of training. Jesse honestly likes seeing her like this, alive and kicking.

Mimi pushes a hand through her hair, and it sticks straight up. At the very least, it reveals the constellation of cute freckles on her forehead. “Hey yourself, babe. You know how much I love your glasses,” she says with a wink. Jesse’s grateful that the dark of the early morning hides their blush.

“You’re cuter,” they reply.

“Of course I am; you’re the handsome one, I’m the cute one. Between the two of us, we’ll take over the world,” Mimi says with conviction. “So, did you get a chance to see the video I sent you?”

“No, not yet… Hold on, lemme get my laptop and I’ll watch it right now.” Jesse ties their blanket around them like a cape, and makes for their backpack in the corner of the room.

“It’s a bird! No, it’s a plane!”

“It’s fuckin’ cold, that’s what it is!” They shuffle back over with their computer tucked under one arm. “So, what exactly is it you want me to see?”

“Like, you know how last summer I went to that super awesome intensive up in Buffalo? Where I cleaned up my triple axel and learned all that cool stepwork?”

“You talk about it all the time, doll. I know.”

“Hey,” Mimi complains, “that intensive changed my life! Of course I’m gonna talk about it! Anyhow, one of the girls there with me was one of the locals, and while we were there, we got to talking. She talked about Brazil, and her lovely hometown of Rio, and I mostly talked about you—are you blushing?”

They are. “Just keep going!”

“Right, right. So, we kept in touch after the intensive, I text her memes like a good friend, you know, the usual.”

“Of course, continue.” All good friendships stand on a solid foundation of memes. It's just science.

“And uhm… Near the end of last season, her coach told her that he’s retiring for good, and moving to Aruba or something. She was really torn up, seeing as he took her all the way to World's last season. Her coach had already lined her up with his successor, but the two didn’t get along at all. So, I might’ve told her how you got your current coach…”

Ah. So that’s what all the commotion was about; Mimi was eager to help her new friend, and in a way, help Jesse too. She knows how much Jesse liked meeting new members of the family, provided that it pans out.

“So she skated the program,” Jesse murmured, understanding. “Ok, I’ll watch it. I mean, if she’s already gone all the way to World’s, we don’t need to worry if she can actually skate…”

 

* * *

 

“Psst! Coach—” Jesse shakes Yuuri awake as gently as they can, but this is urgent, so any manhandling will have to be excused— “wake up! I have something to show you!”

Yuuri rolls over with a groan and squints at them. “What is it, Jesse?”

“I think I found you a new student! You wake Viktor, I’ll wake the others,” they whisper.

Yuuri nods, but Jesse is already out the door, off to wake up Yuri.

Trying to be more polite this time, they knocked on the doorframe first. “Go away,” Yuri grumbles, his accent thick with sleep.

“May I come in?”

“No.”

Jesse sighs, “fine. You have twenty minutes to wake up and come to the TV room. After that I’m gonna sic Blanca on you.” Upon hearing her name, Blanca wags her tail and leans against Jesse.

Yuri says something grouchy and inappropriate sounding in Russian, but Jesse makes out an affirmative, “Да,” sighed out at the end of it, so they continue onward to Aleanna’s room.

Jesse knocks on Aleanna’s door, and she opens it immediately, looking surprisingly alive for five thirty in the morning; her hair is in a messy bun and her pajamas are in disarray, but her violet eyes are clear and focused. She immediately kneels down to pet Blanca, taking advantage that she’s technically not working yet.

(They can’t exactly blame her; Blanca is _very_ soft.)

“Good morning, Jesse. I heard you and Blanca get up, did you need something?”

“I’ve got a surprise for everyone. Meet us in the TV room in twenty minutes.”

“You got it,” Aleanna replies, still petting Blanca.

Jesse leaves to wake Ollie, but notices Blanca not moving at all. “Blanca, come. We gotta go get Ollie!” Blanca perks up the moment she hears Jesse call, but Aleanna starts scratching her behind the ears, and the poor girl is torn, looking from Jesse to Aleanna and back again. They sigh. “It’s okay, girl. You can stay with Aleanna for a while. Ok? Stay.” Blanca is soothed, and inches close to Aleanna so she can lick her face.

Ollie’s room is at the end of the hall, where Yuuri used to sleep, once upon a time. Since Jesse had already claimed a guest room upon arrival, he had managed to snag the more private bedroom for himself.

Ollie has his head poked out of the doorway as Jesse approaches; he must’ve heard all the commotion.

“Let me guess,” he says in a low voice, so only Jesse can hear, “you found a new skater? Are you gonna show us their video?”

Jesse nods their head furiously, grinning ear to ear.

“I’ll be down in a sec.”

 

* * *

In the end, Yuri isn't the problem getting the meeting going; at the end of twenty minutes, he arrives looking dead inside but well put together for six AM, demanding coffee. No, the problem ends up being Viktor. Jesse makes good on their promise and unleashes Blanca, who moseys over to the couple and lays squarely on top of them.

“I don't understand how you can survive having Blanca sit on you like that,” Viktor whines. He finally reaches the tv room with Yuuri, both of them looking suspiciously red. “I thought she was going to suffocate me!”

“Blanca doesn’t weigh _that_ much,” Jesse replies, “she’s only sixty-five pounds, so that’s what… Thirty kilograms? It’s nice.”

Viktor just stares at them, half horrified, half thinking of what to say, but Yuri interrupts before he gets a word in. “So everyone’s here. Can we just get this over with?”

“Right!” Jesse opened up their laptop and connected it to the big television “So, this morning Mimi sent me a video from a friend of her’s in New York. Her name’s Penelope Correa. She came in fifth in World’s this past season, but I think I’ll let her skating do the rest.”

The video starts; Stay Close to Me is edited into the video instead of being piped through a shoddy camera microphone, but Penelope’s starting movements are completely in sync with the sound.

True to her rank in World’s, Penelope’s skating is clean; good edges, proper extension, clean triples. Her performance, however, is a little painful to watch.

Somehow, despite her good (perhaps even excellent) technical aspects, the artful side falls flat on its face. As she hits her first step sequence everything becomes clear: she’s out of her element.

Penelope completely swaps out the step sequence for a powerful, latin dance. She cocks her hips, puts her hands to her heart and puts all her energy into a gorgeous step sequence, and just as suddenly as it starts, it ends, and she goes back to the bland, traditional moves as prescribed. There is, however, a soft, sad smile on her face, which extends into her limbs a little; she reaches for something with longing, and her whole body moves with the weight of the feeling.

She ends the performance with a wobbly, but fully rotated, quad toeloop, then immediately breaks her ending pose to grin at the camera and chatter off in portuguese. After a few phrases she blows kisses at the camera and switches to english.

“Thank you so much for watching this! I had so much fun skating this,” she says, her hazel eyes soft with unspoken thoughts.

The video ends.

Jesse stops the next video from autoplaying a RIP Vine compilation, then looks back nervously at the rest of the group. Viktor is grinning, as is Aleanna; ‘like father like daughter’ comes to Jesse’s mind immediately, and they wonder if the same thing ever happens to them and Yuuri. Yuri’s got a begrudgingly impressed look on his face, nodding almost imperceptibly. Olivier is smiling into his phone, and quickly shows off Penelope’s instagram to everyone.

For a moment, Jesse’s nerves give them pause before they glance at Yuuri. A laundry list of mistakes pops up without warning, inviting them to dive into the rabbit hole of ridiculous ideas labelled ‘Coach Doesn’t Like Me Anymore’. As always, they tamp it firmly down and look at their mentor.

Yuuri has a proud, gentle smile on his face. “So, when’s our flight?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, just to be clear, Blanca is Jesse's second service dog. They originally had a border collie named Haley who also had public access rights, but she died very young, for reasons Jesse was never really told about. I'd tell you more, but I plan on writing all of this into other chapters, so for now I'll keep all you lovelies in the dark.
> 
> Mimi is Jesse's best friend and former rinkmate. They are not dating (yet? idk if I want to or not), but their friendship is very emotionally intimate/romantic. They're both quite comfortable with this. Again, I'd tell you more, but spoilers.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesse meets their idol, and has a small talk with everyone's favorite angsty teen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Thus Spoke Zarathustra plays in the background*
> 
> I RETURN.
> 
> Sorry I disappeared for a while! Between school and my aunt going in and out of the hospital, my life has been an absolute mess. But since the ice skating season is right upon me, the hype has been super intense and I've been drawn back into this beautiful rabbit hole once more. 
> 
> Aside from that, I haven't been able to get in touch with espritneo, so I'm gonna be going my own way with their character and hope for the best. I really hope they come back though, because I miss chatting it up with them.

While Yuuko makes herself busy sending the video to Yuuri and everyone, Jesse finds themself back on the ice, tracing meticulous figures on the patch.  More than anything else, elaborate figures were their favorite part of skating; the precision, the single minded determination.  It quieted everything except them, the ice, and the pattern they traced down, pass after pass.  Now, they settle into doing a loop figure eight, hoping it’ll shoo away the worries crawling all over their brain.

The girls are still there, watching with barely hidden curiosity.  The three probably have a lot of questions as to why a foreigner two years out of the game suddenly shows up, practically in competition form, and asks them to film them skating.  Let alone the name change, the lack of boobs and the growth spurt.  Jesse hadn't hidden their transition from anyone, but they weren't particularly visible on social media either.  Jessica Foley had simply disappeared after her crushing defeat at the Trophee De France.

After skating a few different patterns into the ice, everything has finally settled in.  They’re definitely nervous, but Jesse also has nothing to lose.  This isn't their last chance on the ice; their old coach would take them back in a heartbeat, if Yuuri says no.  Painful as it is to think about, their new skating doesn't begin or end with Yuuri as their coach.  (And, Mimi’s offer to enter senior pairs is permanently open, and that would probably be pretty fun, all things considered…)

The waiting is killing them though.

“Hey,” they say, waving the girls over.  “Do you think you could play Will You Dance on the speakers?  It’s on my phone.”

“Will You Dance?” The girl all decked out in blue confirms.

“Yeah, it was my exhibition skate for my senior debut.”  It was the first routine they helped choreograph.  Even though remembering that they only were able to perform it once, and the costume was uncomfortably feminine, the whole performance warmed them through with nostalgia.  It was an honest skate; or as honest as it came, for someone fully in the closet.

It feels better, like this.  They're definitely more masculine than the firmly in-the-middle look they aspire for, but hey, you can only do so much when the ISU wants your testosterone level high enough to match a cis guy’s.

They dance across the ice, loose and free; the whole world fades away into a blur of color and movement, and they lose themself in the familiar motions.  They even feel lighter, spiritually  _ and _ physically.  The movement sinks into their very core, until they’re only aware of the music, and their own body on the ice.  They feel complete, finally.

_ Ah, this is what I've been missing, _ they think,  _ I can't leave now.  This is where I belong. _

It’s tempting to upgrade the last jump in the set to a quad, but the risk is too great, especially with how little energy they actually have.  Instead they drop the jump entirely for an improvised step sequence, and end with a biellmann spin.  You can never have too many of those.

The world comes back into focus as the song ends...and there’s Yuuri, applauding quietly.  Viktor and Yuri Plisetsky are flanking him; the former clapping and grinning like a madman and the latter just… scowling.  His moodiness is notorious online, but seeing it in person is still discouraging.

Yuuri on the other hand…  The moment he makes eye contact with Jesse, their heart leaps into overdrive, terrorized by the day’s events.  It’s  _ him _ .  Yuuri-freakin-Katsuki, Jesse’s one and only hero.  The only one who has a whole folder on their laptop dedicated to illegal downloads of his performances; the only one who motivated Jesse to keep going, through flubbed jumps and shitty, condescending skate moms; the one who Jesse has copied more times than they can count, way before they thought of skating  _ Stay Close To Me _ .

Yuuri Katsuki.  Just, standing there, applauding a two year old program, smiling at them.  In the flesh.

_ Don’t panic, don’t panic... _

Viktor cries, “bravo!”  He’s practically flailing around with enthusiasm at this point, but Yuuri still remains relatively still.  His smile is gentle, doesn’t give much away.  (Jesse’s mind eagerly fills in the blanks with every worst case scenario it can find.)

“Thank you,” they try to get their volume over a faint murmur, but that fails spectacularly.  “I’m glad you liked it…”  

Apparently Yuuri has no problem with hearing Jesse, because he replies (his own voice soft to match, how kind), “I did.  That ending step sequence was excellent.  As was your performance of Stay Close to Me.”

Jesse turns pink, dumbstruck and silent.  They try to say something, anything, but they can barely get out a squeak before their voice peters back out.

_ Okay, now panic. _

In the doorway, Yuuko waves vigorously.  Once she has Jesse’s attention, she gives them a sunny smile and a big thumbs up, and like three multicolor ducklings, her daughters mirror her.  “Good luck,” she mouths, “be brave!”

Right.  There’s no way they’ve giving up here, not when the hardest part is almost over.

_ Deep breaths.  You’ve been through so much more, so much worse than this.  Even when he says no, he’ll be nice about it.  No use in hesitating. _

“Thank you, really.  I’m honored.  I’ve ah… Looked up to you for as long as I can remember, so this is straight out of a dream for me…”

Somehow, Victor’s grin grows impossibly wider.  Yuuri, thankfully, stays quiet, and nods for them to go on.

“And I know if I don’t ask this I’ll be kicking myself all the way back to New York, so please, please don’t take this the wrong way—I’m not crazy I swear—”

_ DEEP BREATHS.   _ DEEP _ BREATHS. _

“—Anyway.  Will you be my coach for my return to competition?  I know this is a lot to ask for, and I’m not asking on a whim; this has been on my mind for a while, and I know you  _ just  _ retired, so I’m sure you’re eager to relax...”

Before Jesse can ramble on too long, Yuuri cuts them off.  “I’ll think about it.”

“ _ Seriously? _ ”  Yuri says.

“Whoa wait really?”  Just when they think their heart rate is finally slowing, Yuuri just has to give them another shock.  For their own sake, Jesse tried not to entertain the idea of Yuuri saying yes, and now the unknowns come back with full force, kicking their heart back into overdrive.

“Truly,” he replies, “how long are you here in Japan for?”

“I’ve got a refundable ticket back to New York for a week from tomorrow.  Just in case you say no.  Or yes—not to pressure you or anything!”

“Don’t worry, I don’t feel pressured.  How about I put my skates on, and we talk on the ice?”  Nerves still buzz under their skin, but something about Yuuri’s presence takes the edge off, like a pressure valve.  Their heart’s still pumping a mile a minute, but it's a good kind of excited, not a 'I’m about to pass out holy shit’ excited.

“Sure.”

 

* * *

 

Jesse is, Yuri must begrudgingly admit, pretty damn good.  He sits on the bench, scrolling through their old performance videos on youtube, glancing up every so often to compare with their current form.  They're not as rusty as they should be, for someone returning from a two year hiatus.  The control that they were known for as a teen is still just as precise, judging from how they match Yuuri's moves as the two do laps.

Jesse had even managed to take home silver in the Junior GPF their last year in juniors, not to mention their fantastic (for a senior debut, anyway) performance at Skate America that netted them bronze.  Of course, that was back when they were in women’s, but Yuri can’t imagine that thirty extra seconds in the free skate would break someone who relies so heavily on artistic performance.

Which begs the question: what the hell happened?

“Oooh, I thought you hated Jesse just on principle,” and of-fucking-course, Viktor finds the perfect moment to make himself a nuisance.

“Shut up.  I’m just checking out the competition,” he mutters.

Yuri shoves his phone in his pocket, and focuses on Jesse.

“Competition?  But Jesse isn’t competing against you; they want to be Yuuri’s student, not mine…”

“They’re entering men’s this year, dumbass.  Of course I’ll be competing against them.  How do you not know this?  I thought you were good at social media.”

Victor breezes on past Yuri’s deflection.  “Wow, I haven’t seen you this fired up since—”

“—don’t even say it.  I’ll punch your goddamn teeth out.”

“Aww, I love you too!”

Yuri huffs, pushing Viktor away before he can get his arms around Yuri.  “Don’t you have someplace to be?  You haven’t doted on Katsudon for a good twenty minutes now; you might explode if you don’t say anything.”

“What, I can’t spend time with my favorite student?”

“I’m your only student.  Out with it, I know you want something.”

Viktor ‘hmmm’s for a moment, watching Yuuri and Jesse go around the rink together.  They look awfully chummy for Yuuri’s ‘I’ll think about it.’ 

It makes Yuri vaguely pissed off, but he has to admit that if Yuuri were to get a student, Jesse’s probably the best fit, especially for a first time coach.  So far, they seem like a pretty mellow person, and they're already plenty skilled on their own.

“Just spit it out already!”

“I’m just wondering if Yuuri will go through with it…”

“You mean with coaching Jesse?”

“Yeah.  We haven't really talked about coaching yet.  He mentioned that he might like to take a more active role in coaching you this season, but that was in passing.”

“Wait, are you saying that they really are stealing a coach from me?”  Yuri leaps up, as if he could do something to Jesse from the boards.  “That asshole!”

Viktor laughs, and motions for Yuri to sit back down.  “I meant what I said earlier.  You're reminding me of when you first came to Hasetsu, all riled by the prospect of me coaching Yuuri.”

“Oh fuck you, I'm loads more mature now.”

“Clearly.”  Viktor’s still laughing.  “But seriously—”

“When in your life have  _ you _ been serious?”

“—What is it about Jesse that bothers you so much?  We’ve yet to see if they’ll actually stay on as Yuuri’s pupil.”

“I don't need to justify myself to you, old man.”

“Uh huh,” he says.  “So you're just pissed off because...?”

Oh no, not the _ look _ .  Yuri knows that look, that’s the 'Victor has ridiculous ideas about feelings’ look.  Of course, he’s always right, the overly emotional jackass, but that doesn't mean Yuri will go quietly.

“Stop.  Stop right there.  I’m not gonna talk about my feelings, or whatever you call that sappy horseshit.  I’m just curious.  They drop off the face of the planet for two years and then suddenly they’re in Hasetsu asking to train with Katsudon?  We have a good thing going here, I don’t want some stranger to fuck it up, especially not for Yuuri.”

Victor just grins, and Yuri scowls in reply.

 

* * *

 

Jesse catches on quickly, noticing by the second pass that Yuuri wants them to copy him, to carefully skate in tight, parallel formation, mirroring his moves.  Mimi used to do that with them all the time, when they played at entering pairs together, just so they could stick together.

By the fourth pass, they're synced up enough with Yuuri to focus on talking instead of watching him.  “You said you wanted to talk and skate, right?”

“I did.  Tell me a little about yourself, Jesse.”

_ Dammit, he just had to go for the broadest possible question, didn’t he? _  “Ah…  Well, that’s a little broad isn’t it,” they reply sheepishly, “is there something specific you want to know?”

“That was a bad question, sorry…”  Yuuri pauses, thinking about what he really wants to ask.  Of course he’s honored, under all of the confusion, but he still has more questions than he can count.  The rest of the way home he researched Jesse’s skating history, and they had a great track record (minus their senior debut, but even their first performance there landed them bronze) under their previous coach, Gina Hartmann; even if they needed a hiatus, Jesse didn’t need a new coach for a competitive edge.  “I guess the first thing that I'm curious about is why you chose me.  Why not go back to New York?”

“ _ That’s _ a question I can answer.  It’s kind of silly, actually.  After I left, I started transitioning, taking testosterone, got surgery.  And I told myself that if I ever came back, I'd want to enter the men's division.  And when I was getting ready this past year, I kept asking myself the same question: if I'm going to have to be a man for the rest of my competitive career, then what kind of man am I supposed to be?”

“For the rest of your career?’

“Well, personally, I don't really see myself as a man  _ or  _ a woman.  Gender always confused me.  It’s almost like I have a big hole in my brain where gender is supposed to go.”

“I see.  And so where did that question lead you?”

“In the end, I understood that I didn't know what it meant to be a man, not really.  But if anyone was going to be a worthy guide, it was you.”  Jesse has a full blown blush at this point, but they continue on, “not that I need, like, lessons about presenting like a guy, nor would I expect you to, but…  Ugh, this is coming out all wrong—I thought, aside from the fact that I've drawn inspiration from your performances for years, that you’re the kind of person who wouldn't ask me to 'man up’.  I still want to be me, when it comes right down to it.  And I thought that you’d be the kind of coach to let me be me.”

After that, they skate around in silence.  Jesse doesn't know what to say, and if Yuuri was thinking things over, they don't want to be a nuisance.  Instead, they slow down, breaking out of formation to go over some more figures in the center, and, once they’re cooled down, they exit the rink.  Their legs are watery with hunger and adrenaline, but they manage to make it into the locker room before they flop down on a bench.

They did it.  They really, really did it.

Jesse lays back on the bench, doesn’t even bother with taking off their skates; they’re floating on alternating waves of shock and adrenaline, too busy to bother with worldly concerns like moving.  Instead, they count holes on the drop ceiling, waiting for feeling to return to their legs.

Out of the corner of their eye, there’s a flash of blond hair, and suddenly Yuri is there, is scowling down at them.

“This is a locker room, not a spa,” Yuri snaps, “sit up, god dammit.”

“Sorry…” There’s a horrible metal scrape as they drag their left blade across the bench, so loud their eyes water.

Yuri sits down, all the way at the end of the bench, and stares.  He’s frowning, looking them up and down, but it’s not like the scowl from before.  If he doesn’t like Jesse, well, that’s okay.   _ You can’t be liked by everyone _ , they think, but it still hurts a little, even though they know it’s not personal.  Yuri never seemed like a particularly friendly person to begin with, and Jesse knows, with a disposition like theirs, that they’ll probably never get along.

_ That’s okay _ , they insist again.

“Listen, if you’re just here on a whim, leave now,” Yuri says.  His eyes are green, Jesse notes as he stares at them.  Green like their sister’s.  “He’s a celebrity, I get it.  It would be so cool to have him as a coach, yeah?  But I won’t have you ruin his reputation.  If you’re gonna be his student, you better be the best damn skater he’s ever seen.  Yuuri doesn’t deserve to have his name dragged through the mud for some nobody who ruined their senior debut, ok?”

Jesse nods, mulling his words over.  Yuri cares, that much is clear.  There’s no need to rock to the boat more than they already have, but they can’t just take Yuri’s words sitting down.  Sure, there’s no doubt that their senior debut was an unmitigated disaster, but Jesse has given their whole life to the ice, and that can’t be wiped away by a single shitty competition.  They’re in this for the long haul.

“You care very deeply for Yuuri and Victor, I get it.  Good shovel talk.  But...”  The eye contact is hard but worth it, to see Yuri’s micro-expressions change as they speak.  “I didn’t ask Yuuri to be my coach because it would be ‘cool’.  Do you really think I’d leave behind my family, my home, my friends, just on the off chance I’d get a cool coach?  This is as big a deal for me as it is for you.  I assure you, if Yuuri decides to choose me, I’ll bust my ass making sure his work isn’t in vain.  But don’t assume just because my last year went belly up that I’m doomed to the same fate twice.  Because trust me, I’m not the same kid I was two years ago.  I’m not going down without a fight, Yuuri or not.”

They look down at their skates.  It must break the look of conviction they worked so hard to achieve, but the day has been long and stressful, and Jesse just doesn’t have any energy left to keep up the eye contact; it takes them three tries just to untie their skates.  Once they get them off, pack everything up, ignoring Yuri, they hurry out of Hasetsu Ice Castle.


End file.
